aestivus

Forms

aestīvus (feminine aestīva, neuter aestīvum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed with the suffix -īvus from aestus (“heat”) according to the OLD and the TLL,^[2][3] or from aestās (“summer”) according to Wiktionary;^[1] the TLL notes that its meaning follows ⟨aestās⟩.^[3] De Vaan derives both nouns from Proto-Italic *aissāt- and Proto-Italic *aissu-, which go back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eidʰ-teh₂t- (“burning, heat”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eidʰ-tu-, with the suffixes ⟨-tāt-⟩ and ⟨-tu-⟩ later restored; the root is the one in aedēs.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4] The OLD's earliest quotation is Cato's instruction to build winter and summer stalls for oxen.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is of or belonging to summer: the summer signs that the sun passes through in Lucretius, things designed for summer use, as Cato's stalls, and birds or plants that appear in summer, as Livy's summer birds.^[2][5] With occāsus and oriēns it names the north-west and north-east, where the sun sets and rises in summer, as in Livy, and aestīvus annus in Manilius is the summer part of the year.^[2] In Statius it is summery or warm.^[2][1]

The neuter plural became the noun aestīva, summer quarters or a summer camp.^[1][5] Church Latin glosses it “of summer”.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of summer stalls for oxen.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the summer signs of the zodiac.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of summer birds and of the north-west.^[2][7]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius of a summery breeze.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to summer, occurring in summer.^[2][5][1][6]
2. Designed for or used in summer.^[2]
3. Appearing or growing in summer.^[2]
4. occāsus aestīvus, oriēns aestīvus: the north-west, the north-east.^[2]
5. Having summer conditions, summery.^[2][1]

Word family

• aestīva
• aestīvālis

Related words

• aestās
• aestus
• aedēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de